Physical Training

[INMIline]

Ok, where to start? In order to become fit you need realistic goals. It's fine to aim high but the disappointment when you don't obtain the unrealistic does more damage than good. Don't step on a scale very other day. The mirror is your friend when trying to obtain a desired look. Scale, once a month.
Fat loss. The best way to lose undesired weight is as of now, work ethic and diet. Cardio on an empty stomach. This way your body doesn't have the carbs to burn and in turn is forced to burn body fat. You need to figure out a heart rate that will allow you to burn fat but maintain muscle. This is not a cardiovascular workout I'm talking about, but a fat burning process. I'll get into cardio in a minute. There are calculators to help determine the rate needed. Target Heart Rate Calculator

Diet is more of a trial and error. Every humane body responds to something different. But a common mistake is IMO Atkins diet. The brain needs carbs to function. But it's a platform for a decent contest prep or quick results diet for the average guy. It's not healthy to deplete carbs all together. However you can cycle them and still function 100% and either help get or stay very fit. Example would be. 50/20/20/50/100/10/10 (100 being a cheat day)

Building lean mass. Though I am sure this doesn't apply to this thread seeing most are wanting to be ready for some sort of combat and lactive acid is not your friend in an event such as combat. But I'll touch on workout routines for a minute. In the gym. Your not there to shoot the ****. Fact is your there to work. Rest periods need to be short. No more than 2 minutes inbetween sets. You don't want your slow twitch muscle fibers to heal inbetween tearing them. This is a long subject but I'll try to sumorize the best I can. In building muscle lower reps work tear fuscle fibers. The increase and swelling of fibers are what gives the humane the symetrical muscular build.

Endurance is a bit tricky. In the old time boxing days it was thought that if the fighter could cover long distance for a long period of time the fight would be easier. Modern day studies show that short cardio workout routines allow the body to understand the spurts and rests. Allowing better control of lactic acid build up, reaquiring normal heart rate in short rest period, and oxygen flow. Wind sprints and short period cardio/biometrics are what todays mma fighters to to prepare for what is a very tiring sport. Also weight lifting is a high rep fast twitch fiber routine.

I will conclude here. With diet, if you have to eat out, even fast food. Make the smartest choice possible. When you do not feel like going to the gym, just get dressed and walk in the door. After that do whatever you can while your there. Anything is better than nothing.
Drink water. Lots of water. Very important to stay hydrated. Try for atleast a gallon a day. I carry a gallon jug at all times so I know how much I drank that day.

[INMIline]

For long distance runners. I like to run on the edge of either the road or track. By angling your foot you can utilize different parts of the calf muscle and prevent shin splints. Alter sides and slightly different foot angles as often as possible. It helps for the morning after

[jdhaines]

Originally Posted by INMIline

Diet is more of a trial and error. Every humane body responds to something different. But a common mistake is IMO Atkins diet. The brain needs carbs to function. But it's a platform for a decent contest prep or quick results diet for the average guy. It's not healthy to deplete carbs all together. However you can cycle them and still function 100% and either help get or stay very fit. Example would be. 50/20/20/50/100/10/10 (100 being a cheat day)

Here is a neat write-up on ketogenic (low/no carb) diets that I found awhile back which I copied into my blog, that's the explanation for the strange format. I'm pasting it here. Some good information.

Information on Low-Carb Diets

Feb 4th, 2009 by Josh

I just found this great write-up about ketogenic diets (low-carb diets). I’m copy and pasting from here.

Well I went from 207 to 173 in about 8 weeks using a ketogenic diet. Many people say these are not safe, but the research shows that, if the directions are followed correctly, they are completely safe. Additionally, bodybuilders have been using ketogenic diets for decades during their cutting phases prior to competition.

The most common ketogenic diet is the Atkins Diet. The Atkins Diet (and any other ketogenic diet) involves eliminating practically ALL carbohydrates from your diet for a period of 2 weeks BUT eating as much (within reason) meat, cheese, eggs, and fat as one wants, then slowly adding back carbohydrates until one reaches a level where he or she is neither gaining or losing weight.

Here’s the science behind it:
Normally, the carbohydrates in food are converted into glucose, which is used to fuel one’s body and brain. However, eliminating carbohydrates from one’s diet causes the liver to convert fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies. The ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. When the body produces ketone bodies it is referred to as a “state of ketosis” (which is why these diets are called “ketogenic” diets)
The diet has just enough protein for body growth and repair, and sufficient calories to maintain the correct weight for age and height. The “classic” ketogenic diet contains a 4:1 ratio by weight of fat to combined protein and carbohydrate. This is achieved by eliminating foods high in carbohydrates (starchy fruits and vegetables, bread, pasta, grains and sugar) while increasing the consumption of foods high in fat (cream and butter).

The reason a person MUST eat fat on this diet is because if a person eats too few calories, that person’s metabolism will slow down. So, a person still wants to eat somewhere between 1,300 to 1,800 calories a day (this is a rough estimate; the real figure depends on a person’s height and weight. This was my estimate). Eating meat almost exclusively makes getting this many calories into one’s system a bit challenging (think about it: 1 whole can of tuna, for example, only contains 200 calories). Also, eating 6 small meals throughout the day instead of 3 big ones keeps one’s metabolism going, which also aids the process.

While on this diet one should NOT do heavy weight training because carbohydrates are required to rebuild muscle tissue that is damaged during these activities (NOTE: Bodybuilders do use ketogenic diets, but they actually use “cyclic ketogenic diets,” which is unnecessary for your purposes). However, riding an exercise bike or vigorous walking for 15 - 30 minutes every morning BEFORE you eat will REALLY make the pounds disappear, and aerobic exercise/light weights are always good for a person.

My Experience:
When I did this diet, I followed it by-the-book. This meant for the first 2 weeks, I could only eat a MAXIMUM of 15 grams of carbohydrates each day. To put this in perspective, 1 slice of bread has between 15 and 20 grams of carbohydrates. I could eat no fruit, no grains (bread, pasta, cereal, rice, etc.), no milk, no nuts, absolutely nothing with sugar in it, and very few vegetables. The diet I did (Atkins) also recommends eliminating all caffeine since it often affects ones insulin levels (NOTE: eating carbohydrates creates insulin spikes that transport nutrients to fat cells to be stored, so insulin spikes are completely counterproductive during ketogenic diets). So I had no coffee, tea, etc. Finally, the diet required me to drink about a gallon of water a day; I was constipated a lot due to a lack of fiber; and I had a killer headache for the first 2 days while my body switched over from using carbohydrates to using ketones. However, I lost almost 20 pounds in that first 2 weeks. AND, I lost almost 20 pounds in 2 weeks by eating cheese, bacon, and spinach omelets, tuna salad with extra mayonnaise between cheese slices instead of bread, and steaks cooked in butter with bacon and cheese on top of them. This was WAY better than those no-food diets I had tried before. Anyway, during the 3rd week, I added nuts to my diet; in the 4th week, I added dairy; and so on…Remember, this is a lifestyle change, not a quick fix.

I did this diet because I had a fatty liver, and my doctor told me to try it. After doing this for 2 months my liver function test showed that my liver was very healthy, showing enzyme levels that were near the bottom of the healthy range (whereas they had been 3x higher than the top of the range before). AND, since my body was converting fat for energy, my cholesterol level actually went DOWN during this cheese/bacon/mayonnaise frenzy! I am actually healthier now than I’ve ever been, and as long as I remember that this is a lifestyle change, and keep doing light aerobic exercise a few times a week, I shouldn’t have a problem with putting the weight back (and I haven’t yet). I even have a cookie or piece of cake on special occassions…I just have to do it in moderation. So, this diet/exercise plan will work, but it takes commitment. You sound like you have commitment, so maybe give it a try!

The links below should be very helpful in understanding this type of dieting further.

His sources were:
http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Atkins-Diet-Rev… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_d…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkins_Diet…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Beach…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_in…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_lo…

Originally Posted by INMIline

Fat loss. The best way to lose undesired weight is as of now, work ethic and diet. Cardio on an empty stomach. This way your body doesn't have the carbs to burn and in turn is forced to burn body fat. You need to figure out a heart rate that will allow you to burn fat but maintain muscle. This is not a cardiovascular workout I'm talking about, but a fat burning process. I'll get into cardio in a minute. There are calculators to help determine the rate needed. Target Heart Rate Calculator

Certainly not to be argumentative, but a few people are starting to gain notoriety using a newer method that claims that targeted heart rates are actually not as good for losing weight. Jillian Michaels from "The Biggest Loser" is one of them. In her workouts, she pushes your heart rate as high as it can go, for an hour straight without breaks. I actually get to the point where I have to stop because the lack of oxygen in my blood kills my energy for about 30 seconds, then I keep going. I notice much more muscle fatigue during her workouts. I feels like I'm working my muscles harder than I am because of the lack of oxygen. Something worth looking into.

For the record, P90X uses targeted heart rates and I have had great success with it.

[misconfig]

I appreciate everyone posting and rekindling an old flame that once burned inside of me. I used to be in rather exceptional shape, now I'm skinny with no muscle mass. I push mowed my 1-acre lawn today which was the most physical activity I've had in awhile.

Working in an office really takes its toll! I have signed up for "commando Krav Maga" courses with a goal to get back into shape while learning combat self-defense tactics.

YouTube - COMMANDO KRAV MAGA IN ACTION

INDY CKM :: Indianapolis Commando Krav Maga | Martial Arts Instruction | Muay Thai | Kickboxing

[theweakerbrother]

Krav Maga is very intense. I trained with a group of guys at a Methodist Church in Cincinnati that practiced Bujinkan that is very similar to Krav Maga. In fact, Krav Maga came from Israeli studetns of Bujinkan and altering it a bit.

I never won one single fight and they never made me feel bad but only motivated me to do better. It was a diverse group of guys. One was a cop, another was a Buddhist black dude, another worked in IT at a library downtown. I ended up getting pretty sick and had to drop out and then we moved (back) to Indiana. Talk about feeling sore after a few hours of that!

[mercop]

Is the difference between Commando Krav Maga and regular Krav Maga the wearing of underwear?

[jdhaines]

^Nice!

I would love to find a local Krav Maga class.

[INMIline]

I have a boat load of Krav Maga DVD instructionals. Some of it is worth learning. jdhaines, your minutes from Michiana fight league. Their Brazilian Jiu-jitsu instructor would impress you. I've never sparred him but I hear he's real good.

[Boilers]

Well, it looks like people here have my running done for me. Keep up the good work. I've never run a mile in my life. I don't have a spare calorie/fat cell I can spare at the moment to do so, either. I figure I'll start running when I'm 50. Everyone I know that runs has screwed their knees or feet up. I'll just run faster than the slowest guy the day that I have to.

[riverman67]

Are there any Krav maga classes in the Indy greenwood area?
I am currently working with a PT once a week but when my contract is up I am going to take some kind of self defense training. This looks like just the ticket